Never Fail
by teh-spiff
Summary: [Spring Awakening]Moritz gets a note from his kindergarten teacher from doing bad from his reading and his father isn't happy


**Never Fail **

6-year old Moritz stuttered as he tried to read the page in the workbook aloud. "The-the-mount-mount-"

"Mountains," his teacher corrected as gently as possible although sounding obviously annoyed since this was the 10th word he missed.

Melchior glared at the teacher, noticing the annoyance in her voice and stared in concern at his friend who looked nervous and frustrated that he couldn't say the words in the workbook.

"Mountains," Moritz said, completely nervous to the point of just wanting to disappear. Why couldn't he just correctly read the stupid words? They weren't that hard! He had said them right before. _Concentrate _he thought, repeating in his mind the word his dad told him all the time, _Just concentrate and think. _

"Moritz," said the teacher, massaging her temples, "Just stop there; it's obvious you need some help with your words…I'm going to write a note for your parents, ok? Telling them you may need a tutor."

"Ok," said Moritz with a sigh and looked down at his feet.

"Don't feel bad, Moritz," said Melchior, "The teacher makes me lose focus too…Mama says losing focus happens to a lot of smart people."

Moritz just nodded, while still looking at his feet, the words his dad had said to him on the first day of school ringing in his head, _"Don't fail son…that's important…I don't want a failure as a son._

Moritz walked home slowly, the note his teacher gave him clutched in his fists. He didn't want to show his mommy and daddy the note, but, what other choice did he have? His teacher would probably tell them anyway, then they'd get mad at him for him not telling them.

Moritz walked into the house and saw his daddy sitting on the living room couch reading while his mommy sat next to him knitting a sock.

"Mamma?" Moritz said quietly, "Daddy?"

"Moritz," said Mrs. Stefial, turning to her son and frowned when she noticed he didn't look happy, "Honey, what's wrong?"

Moritz felt tears coming on. He didn't want to do this anymore. His tummy ached and he felt like he was going to throw up. But, he had to. He walked over to his daddy slowly, with his head down and held up the note to him.

"I failed, Daddy," he said with a sniffle, "I'm sorry."

Mr. Stefial looked up from his book and frowned a bit as he heard what Moritz had said.

"What do you mean?" he asked, taking the note from Moritz hand and reading it. After he was finished, he looked up at Moritz with disappointment. "Moritz," he said.

"I'm sorry, Daddy, I-" Moritz began

"What I don't understand is," said Mr. Stefial, standing up and looking Moritz straight in the eye, obviously angry and disappointed, "I've heard you use these words before! Were you trying to make us look stupid!? What happened, that's what I don't understand! How could you fail like that!? How could you be so stupid!?"

"I'm afraid your father's right," said Mrs. Stefial, "Moritz, you have no trouble with words usually…I don't see how you could fail."

Tears sprang in the young boy's eyes. "Daddy, Mamma, I'm sorry. Please…I didn't mean to…"

"I told you not to fail!" Mr. Stefial said sternly, "That I don't want a failure as a son! I never want to see a note like this again, do I make myself clear!?"

Moritz sniffled. "Yes, Daddy," he said quietly.

"Good," his dad said, "Now, go to your room...your mother will call you when dinner's ready."

"Yes, Daddy," said Moritz and ran up to his room. That's when the tears he had been trying to suppress came. He flopped on his bed and cried. What was wrong with him? He shouldn't of failed like that. He wanted to be smart like his Daddy and make him happy. He wanted his Mommy and Daddy to love him.

"I promise I won't fail again," said Moritz, with a small sniffle, "I'll make you proud of me…I promise."

That was what he would do, make sure he'd never fail again. He'd work hard, make his Mommy and Daddy love him. And with that, he fell asleep, tired from all that had happened that day.


End file.
